To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance her Department provides to strategic health authorities and NHS trusts considering reconfiguration of health services on the appropriate mix of (a) clinical safety, (b) health inequalities and access to health facilities in communities and (c) the ability of families and friends to visit patients. (115601)

Reconfiguration of health services is a matter for the national health service locally.

We would expect that a whole range of factors are taken into account to inform and determine any such decision.

No significant changes to the reconfiguration of health services locally will take place without first consulting local people.